Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Front Row - Listening Activities


Nominess for the 2006 Academy Awards have recently been published. A full list of nominees and other related information can be found here.

You can download this speaking activity based on these nominations here, but much more challenging is to listen to these two extracts from the weekly podcast of the BBC Radio 4 culture and arts programme, Front Row. The presenter discusses the nominations with a critic and then interviews Leonardo DiCaprio. Everyone speaks quickly, but if you think about your expectations of this kind of programme and this kind of interview, nothing should surprise you. A tapescript of the discussion is here, along with the questions that DiCaprio is asked. Your task is to try to summarise Leo's answers.

The two recordings are full of lots of useful film vocabulary, and lists of verbs and nouns related to acting and Academy Awards can be found here. A useful online dictionary to help you work out any tricky phrases is the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Try to use some nice new vocabulary in a description of a film you have seen recently, or just one that you love...or hate for that matter.

You can find lots more on culture and the arts on the Front Row webpage, from where you can also download and subscribe to podcasts.

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